Turn for the worse

I have a serious concern that demands expression, because it is burning me up and more because it affects everyone's life directly.

I'll start with the particulars. I work for a non-profit organization that promotes string playing and chamber music among children, exceptionally gifted and otherwise. The program is very dear to my heart as I am an alumnus as well as an employee; my musical development would have been drastically different had it not been for the rigours and opportunities this program provided to me, a public school student who does not come from a family familiar with the classical arts. I noticed variations in the quality of the program and its students over the years, but in general, the level of achievement remained very high thanks to the talent and tireless efforts of its music directors. Many people felt that it was the strongest program of its kind in the area, and the strongest among music programs area-wide.

Now that I work behind the scenes at the program , I better understand what goes into it and the hardships it faces each year. Finding donors, housing, staff, music, and students are the biggest challenges. I want to focus, however, on the problem the program is having with finding and retaining the highest level of music student.
For some time now, there has been a talent-drain slowly leaking the life out of the program--the most gifted and ambitious students are leaving the program in droves and no one is quite sure what to do about it, although the effect the drain is having on the quality of the ensemble is undeniable. For years, the program was known for a signature quality of sound and crafting, a quality unheard in student groups in the area. This quality was what drew even stronger students in greater numbers, as they flocked to reap the benefits of associating with players of like-caliber.

That isn't happening anymore, and I can only attest to the symptoms I see that might point to causes. The program suffers from a very tight budget, but being non-profit that is to be expected, and anyway there is a per-semester tuition fee that girds (although slightly) the budget. A general disorganisation has plagued the program since it's administration staff lost it's more organizationally-minded manager--This may or may not explain, however, why the outside consultation hired to teach the students is quite often missing in action, basically failing to show or call when they agreed to taking the gig and the fee. Finding a place to house the program has been notoriously bad, as after a falling out with an umbrella organization a few years ago (when I was in high school) left the program on the street and renting or being donated time in area churches. All these hang-ups contributed to an atmosphere of confusion and stagnation within the program. Students were not eager to show for 3-hour rehearsals when they knew that it might be canceled because the church or building changed its mind last-minute, or because they knew that the chances of their coach not showing were pretty good. With fewer people showing up on time or at all, more students would quit, tired of hacked-up quartet rehearsals, and too few of those before a performance, most of those without a coach. THe extremely serious students are the first to go, having little patience for educational situations that do not greatly enhance their abilities.

The drain continues to cripple the prgram, and at present it is at its lowest in terms of quality and potential. The students entered by audition only, and were almost always recommended by private studio teachers. (This is how I became involved, through my weekly teacher) Now, with the strong students driven from the program, the method of selection has become drastically different. The audition process has turned to the public sphere, encouraging public school orchestra teachers to recommend the program to their students. Many of the students do not study privately (at least apparently) and as such have no concept of themselves as players outside of the orchestral ensemble. At first hearing you would not be able to distinguish the sound from that of a decent sounding high-school orchestra. (The difference being that the average age is significantly lower) This in turn does nothing to draw strong students in.There was a time when the program could boast of being a real service to every student, something worth pursuing. Now, it must rely, no, lean on the remaining strong players to carry the ensembles. The program has degenerated to using its strong students instead of genuinely promoting them, a practice I do not condone, as many other area programs have done it for years ando ours provided a haven from that sort of trap.

THe very point of my grievance is here: now that the program is essentially in bed with the public programs, in terms of students and now even musical staff, (!) a foul, familiar phenomenon is occuring--the public school orchestra teachers are now attempting to exert leverage on the program's operations. The public school orchestra students that are in the program are finding that (even in its worst shape) it is better, more rewarding, and consequently more fun than their school orchestra classes. A number of them have already defected from their classes and use the program as their primary musical outlet. The school orchestras are losing their stronger players to a similar talent-drain, and the orchestra programs (like ALL "public" entities) are feeling the pinch because they rely on their strongest students to validate and justify the existence of such a class. Without self-motivated and driven individuals, the classes are obviously pointless, and any clamoring for "music in the schools" funding seems utterly ridiculous.
Understandably, the more vocal public school music teachers are already demanding that our program expel any student that does not participate in his school orchestra, and deny entry to others in the same situation. Can you imagine the spectacle of a public school teacher, held up to us as the hope of all our futures and the most valuable resource in our society, demanding that a student NOT PURSUE or BE EXPELLED FROM a program with the potential to greatly promote his individual achievement? Take a moment and try, i swear to God it's horrifying and beyond reprehensible in real life. I myself was a victim of this belligerence, as I also participated in a youth symphonic orchestra program that has long been in cahoots with the public schools, and in order to hold onto that enriching, resume-padding, fun and opportunity-laden experience I stuck with my high school orchestra, bored to tears for hours at a time, wasting bells that could have been spent promoting myself academically. Of course, there were my friends in school orchestra class, and the trips and goofing around with them were fun, but guess what---I BARELY REMEMBER ANY OF THOSE TIMES NOW THAT I'M AN ADULT. This is because those moments had to serve as diversions instead of genuinely constructive relationships. But I loved youth orchestra, and I stuck it out for that reason only.
Now the same thing is happening to the program that meant the most to me in my younger years, my chamber music program. It is only going to exacerbate the effect of the talent-drain that has already done so much damage.

Doesn't it strike ANYONE as weird---taxes pay for the school programs, the school programs don't do well (they cannot by design, the model is simply wrong, you do not teach an intricate craft to 30-40 kids simultaneously, you merely get them to ape your suggestions) and all along people are giving less to non-profits (people of average income) because they are paying so much in taxes and need to believe, blindly, that they're getting their money's worth. In effect, it's the public school programs that are CAUSING the talent-drain to begin with---being tax funded, they set themselves up as the center of any universe they enter. Public education is the center of the universe of american education--most kids go there, everybody's working to improve it without even questioning whether it can be, it's always among the biggest propoganda subjects come election time. If you want to send a child to private school, you still have to pay as if you have a child (or two) in public school. Tax credits? Why do i need a credit for something I didn't intend to buy in the first place, and how can anyone calculate how much money a person gets back by not using the public schools? (you can't. no one who can afford it pays precisely the cost of publically educating their exact number of children; remember, people who don't pay taxes also go to school, people who can't quite afford the cost still go to school, and all schools have differing operating costs.)

Why are we corroding what's good in favor of what's...public?